We are pleased to announce that the

 

2009 ICTP Prize

 

is awarded to

 

Professor Marcelo Barreiro

Atmospheric Sciences Unit, School of Sciences,

Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay

 

 in honor of

 

Edward Norton Lorenz

 

The Prize recognizes Professor Barreiro’s important contributions in the field of tropical Atlantic variability, and the exploration of dynamical mechanisms to explain the paleo-climatic record in the last few million years. The results of his investigations have important implications for seasonal forecasting and the climate change debate.

 

Edward Lorenz (1917-2008) was a great American meteorologist and pioneer of chaos theory. As Lorenz studied weather patterns he began to realize that they did not always change as predicted. Minute variations in the initial values of variables in his weather model would result in grossly divergent patterns. This sensitive dependence on initial conditions is the hallmark of dynamical chaos. Lorenz explored the underlying mathematics and published his conclusions in a seminal work entitled “Deterministic Nonperiodic Flow”, in which he described a simple system of nonlinear equations that resulted in a complex dynamical object now known as the Lorenz attractor.

 

The 2009 ICTP Prize Committee

P. Creminelli

L. Göttsche

F. Kucharski

M. Marsili (Chairman)